Viv Beck: Heart of the City CEO on Auckland's Smith & Caughey's continuing to operate

Smith and Caughey's has found a way to stay afloat.  

The long-running Auckland department store has revealed new measures to remain open, despite announcing a closure in May.  

It plans to reduce staff and pull back its operations to the Queen Street ground level store and online offering only.  

Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck says it's a real sign of confidence in the future of Auckland's city centre. 

She says the area is evolving as we speak, and it will help people to see the confidence and investment. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of New Zealand's oldest and most iconic department stores,
Smith and Coey's, has found a way to partially save itself.
The company has backtracked on a full closure, now deciding
to shut its Newmarket store and downsize it's Queen Street
one while focusing on online sales part of the city.
Chief executive Viv Beck is with me this morning. Good morning, Viv,
good morning. This is good news for the city, right, It's.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Great news, it really is. I mean, it's always sad
to think of a business closing. This keeps jobs for
one hundred people. It's from our perspective, great to see
it stay in that particular area. We've got a lot
of you know, construction still happening, but a positive future.
I think this is a good sign of confidence in
the future of Queen Street.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
When is Queen Street going to actually become somewhere that
you go to. I was driving through there yesterday. It
takes you half an hour to get from one side
to the other. There's you know, beggars, not homeless people,
but beggars people who are grow on the street. It's
not a place you want to go at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, I think that's part of a challenge, and we've
raked all of these issues with counsel and at to
make this a better environment while we wait for the
CRL to open, which is CRL, the conventions, and there's
a lot of sort of milestone investments coming through in
the next couple of years. The safety has had.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
A lot of work.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
There's still work to do. We accept that, but a
lot of work has happened and is happening as we speak.
But I think it's really looking to that period. It's
a period from now to when the CRL opens and
the end at ICC is open. There is a lot
of investment which does give positive shows the confidence in
the future of Queen Street. But I think as long

(01:46):
as we get some progress on the things we've been
asking to happen in that area to make it a
better place for people and business right now through this period,
having Smith and Coley live on in Queen Street is positive.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, I completely with you. It's a brilliant, iconic store
and to have some presence still there will be important.
Thank you very much for your time.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
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